


in twos, on fours

by lipsticksunrise



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Collars, Dom/sub Undertones, Frottage, Kink Negotiation, M/M, Puppy Play, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:53:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25985440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lipsticksunrise/pseuds/lipsticksunrise
Summary: Dave likes to not be human sometimes, and Karkat is more than happy to help out.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	in twos, on fours

**Author's Note:**

> this might be the first "good vibes only" type fic i've posted on here, that's fun! i promise that i still have some heavier stuff in the works, although it might be a while because it seems that i legally can't stay focused on one project for more than a week. regardless of all that, though, this one was really just fun to write and i hope it's enjoyable to read! <3

“It’s… I dunno, man, it’s not important, it’s weird, and, like, you know post-nut clarity? Like right after you come and then you’re looking down at your screen like, damn, auto-play really got me _here?_ ” 

“Dave.” Karkat folds his arms and looks pointedly at his boyfriend, whose hand is attempting to cover his laptop screen, and the looping thumbnail preview still visible through Dave’s fingers. He pointedly does not look at Dave’s boxers, which are pulled down around his ankles, or anything above them.. 

Something in Dave’s jaw twitches, tight and more anxious than anything else about his body language suggests, and he shuts the laptop with a definitive _click._ “It’s nothing,” he says, for the seventieth time since Karkat walked in a minute ago. “Can we just - it’s not important, it’s not even enough of a thing to be unimportant, honestly, let’s just drop it like the pimp’s in the fuckin’ crib.”

“We can drop it if you really want,” Karkat says carefully. “But I’m also not going to judge you if you don’t want to. If you’re into weird shit, you’re into weird shit.”

He sits down next to Dave, the bedsprings creaking under his weight, and puts his arm around Dave in a way that hopefully conveys the message of _I am going to be a patient and supportive boyfriend even though I just caught you masturbating to some weird human thing and your entire ass is literally still out._

The message must be at least semi-received, because Dave seems to suddenly realize that his entire ass is still out. He flushes an even brighter red than before and tugs his boxers back up to a more respectable position on his hips. Karkat keeps his gaze schooled on the wall until Dave clears his throat. “Uh, it’s really - I dunno, it probably isn’t, like, a thing that even existed on Alternia. It’s barely even a thing that exists here, honestly.”

Karkat looks back at Dave, who’s retrieved his shades and settled them over his eyes once more. “Are you sure? If it’s important to you…”

“Nah, it’s nothing,” Dave repeats. He closes his laptop with a definitive _snap_ and turns to actually face Karkat for the first time in the conversation. “Do you wanna just go play some Wii Sports or some shit?”

“Sure,” Karkat agrees. He slides his arm back from around Dave’s shoulders and reaches down to clasp Dave’s hand. Dave threads his fingers between Karkat’s without hesitation, and they head into the living block.

Dave lets go of Karkat’s hand and flops down onto the couch immediately, stretching out and, thankfully, seeming to lose some of the tension in his posture.

“You’re going to have to get up if we play Wii Sports, you know,” Karkat points out. He switches the TV and console on without his usual grips at Dave - the air between them still feels a little weird, even with Dave’s pretty good attempt at acting completely normal. Karkat just can’t stop trying to figure out what the hell it even was that Dave was watching.

He wasn’t able to see the screen too well in the tiny window between him opening the respite block door and Dave noticing him, but he’s not sure if he wants to convince himself that his eyes were right or wrong. It looked like there was a guy on his knees in the video, which, okay, that’s a pretty common sight in both human and troll porn, but he wasn’t naked or anything. He seemed to be dressed in boxers and a loose shirt, and Karkat had caught a glimpse of something bright yellow around his neck before Dave saw him and freaked out.

That was honestly the part that made the least sense - the freaking out. They’ve talked about kinks and stuff before; Karkat knows that Dave prefers it when he takes charge, Dave knows that Karkat is more than slightly into coming on people, and the list goes on and on as it often does after as long of a history as theirs. So it’s strange that Dave still has something he’s never mentioned before, and it’s strange that he’s acting so secretive about it when it really didn’t look like anything outrageous from what Karkat saw.

And all that said, there was one other thing that Karkat saw too. The little star at the top of the browser window was filled in with a soft blue, meaning that the page is bookmarked on Dave’s computer. Meaning that Dave saying that it’s nothing is almost certainly bullshit. 

But Karkat said he’d drop it, and it doesn’t seem like it’s bad or anything, so he keeps his mouth shut as he starts hunting for the Wii remotes.

“I know,” Dave says, bringing him back into the moment. “The remotes are over here, dude.” 

Karkat looks over to find Dave waving both in his hands, so he drops down onto the couch next to him, taking one. “Did you just give me Player Two?”

Dave shrugs, and his smile looks almost completely back to normal. “Hey, I found the remotes.”

“I set the fucking TV up!”

“You pressed a button,” Dave corrects. 

“Fine,” Karkat grumbles. “We’re at least playing bowling first, then.” 

“Only if we can play golf next.”

Karkat glares at Dave - he _knows_ that golf is the worst, and he knows that Karkat knows that he only ever picks it because he thinks it’s funny how much it annoys Karkat - but says nothing as Dave leans halfway over on the couch to put the cursor over bowling. 

“Okay, ready to get your ass kicked?” Dave asks, and thank fuck, his smile looks the same as it always does this time. 

They play a few rounds of bowling - Karkat does, in fact, get his ass kicked, although he will forever insist it’s because Wii remotes weren’t designed for trolls - and a few rounds of golf, the results of which Karkat would prefer to keep to himself, and the afternoon falls away into evening as it often does in their house. Dave switches the TV over to some inane carapacian reality show and drops his head onto Karkat’s lap before Karkat can make an attempt to leave. 

The weirdness of earlier is completely gone, and Karkat is about to suggest ordering pizza for dinner when Dave says, so quietly that Karkat barely realizes he’s talking at first, “So, uh. Actually, um, if it’s not too weird or too late to, like, talk about it or whatever, it might kinda be important to me?”

Karkat blinks. “What?”

“You know, um. Earlier,” Dave says. His head is still resting on Karkat’s thigh, but his shades are directed at the blank wall just below the TV, which is currently playing a loud, nonsensical ad.

“ _Oh_ ,” Karkat says, because, duh, idiot, what else could Dave possibly be talking about? It’s good that he’s decided to actually talk about it, but Karkat can’t help but also be a bit concerned. What about whatever it is is so bad that Dave’s hidden it for god knows how long? “Oh, yeah, you’re fine. What is it?”  
“Uh. It’s… huh, fuck, I didn’t really think this one through,” Dave says, and the laugh he tacks on sounds more than a little forced. “Okay, it’s - Alternia had animals, right?”

Karkat blinks, once, twice, three times. “Yeah? Like, lusii are the closest to your image, I think, but we had, like, wild things and all that sort of shit.”

Dave snorts a little, and it sounds genuine this time. “Holy shit, dude, you’d make a perfect Max.”

“What?”

“There was this - _Where the Wild Things Are,_ it doesn’t matter,” Dave trails off, pauses, then says, “So, like, pets weren’t really… a thing, right?”

Dave’s voice is a little unsteady, and Karkat can feel how tense he is against his thigh. Karkat, personally, feels like he’s trying to follow Dave through a corn maze completely blindfolded. Where the fuck is he going with this? “No, not like whatever the fuck you had going on with your purrbeasts and barkbeasts and all that? We didn’t keep animals in our fucking hives, that’d be idiotic.”

“Right,” Dave says. He rolls onto his back for a moment, staring up at Karkat with an absolutely unreadable expression before seeming to realize that, hey, he and Karkat can see each other’s faces like this and promptly rolling back onto his side. “Uh, so, on Earth we had, like, purrcreatures or whatever you said, shit like that, uh, fish, rabbits, I think, dogs, you get the idea. You’ve seen it in movies.”

“Yeah,” Karkat agrees. “I don’t get how this is related, Dave, unless you’re telling me you want to get a dog and that’s… somehow making you horny?”

“Right, yeah, that part.” Dave exhales and somehow manages to tense up even more at the same time. Karkat gently places his hand on his shoulder. “Okay, um, well, that’s not it, ha, it’s… the thing with, like, dogs is that they’re super loyal and you can train them and stuff like that? I mean, I never had one or anything, but like I said, you’ve seen the movies, it’s… yeah. And, uh, sometimes people, like - and this isn’t furry shit, okay, y’all had furries, right?”

“Yes, we had furries,” Karkat says, not for the first time and probably not anywhere near the last time. The pieces are starting to slot together a bit - the man on his knees, the bright yellow collar, presumably, around his neck, the way Dave melts whenever Karkat even indirectly praises him - but he waits for Dave to continue. 

“Right, yeah, so it’s not - it’s not that, exactly, but sometimes people, uh, they like to act like dogs, sort of? Like it kinda - sure, some people go all fuckin’ Fido on your ass, like, dog food and fake paws and I won’t even get into the rest because goddamn, but it can also be kinda like… that video I was watching, it’s, uh, that guy, He - _fuck_ , this is so fucking lame to say out loud.”

Karkat pats Dave’s shoulder lightly, bringing his other hand around to tousle Dave’s hair in the way that always makes Dave chill out a bit. “If you’re worried about being lame now, I have some pretty bad news for you.”

“Shut up,” Dave mutters, but he seems to release the tiniest possible bit of tension from his shoulders. “Okay, it’s, like, for some people, it’s giving up control or whatever, and having, um, direct rules to follow? And that’s - I wouldn’t hate it, I guess.”

He pauses long enough that Karkat figures he’s done talking, long enough for them to both realize that the TV is still playing some stupid infomercial, and Karkat clears his throat unnecessarily. “Okay,” he says. “I’m guessing that this is a sex thing, right?”

Dave’s laugh is barely more than an unsteady exhale, but it helps to break some of the weird, awkward tension that’s been building in the room. “Yeah, it’s kinda a sex thing. Not - not completely, I don’t think, I mean, it’s not like that with actual pets or anything, you know, but I guess it’s kinda hot.”

“Right,” Karkat says. “And is this something you’d want to do, uh, with me?”

“No, I want to do weird dog sex things with Jake,” Dave deadpans. “Ugh, that was probably one of the worst sentences I’ve ever said. But, yeah, if you don’t hate it, or whatever.”

Karkat pauses. He doesn’t… think he hates it? He barely knows what it is, still, but it’s Dave and almost every Dave-related thing in the book is good, in his opinion. He tells Dave as much, and Dave says, “Yeah, I haven’t really done a good job explaining it, huh?”

Karkat snorts. “Yeah, no.” More seriously, he adds, “You talked about control and stuff, and that I get, but I don’t… what would you actually want it to look like?”

“Goddamn, did Rose finally give you that lesson on asking me the questions that are the hardest to answer?” Dave complains. “Shit. Alright. Um. How much did you see? Earlier, I mean.”

“Not much,” Karkat says honestly. “Uh, the human kneeling, and I think it was a collar?”

“Right, right,” Dave says. “Cool. Cool, cool, we’re really, um, saying words now, aren’t we.”

Karkat rolls his eyes, safe in the knowledge that Dave is still refusing to face him but still hopelessly fond. “That _is_ usually how conversations work, dingus.”

“Yeah, true,” Dave admits. There’s a pause, like Dave is waiting for Karkat to drag out the banter, keep giving him an out from saying whatever it is that’s rattling around in his brain, but Karkat stays quiet. Uncomfortable with silence as ever, Dave continues only a few moments later. “Okay, so, I would - the collar thing is, that’s ... something to come back to, I think, no need to dive straight into the deep end like we’re trying to prove ourselves to the hot lifeguard who’s not even looking at us because he’s thinking about how he’s going to get the pool staff to unionize and shit, except he’s like a teenager that barely knows what a union is, and I think maybe it would be cool to just, like, hang out, but maybe I wouldn’t talk and maybe I’d be on my hands and knees?”

Karkat keeps moving his hand through Dave’s hair, gently, careful to keep his claws from catching or tugging, and stays quiet.

“And maybe we could - set some, um, ground rules, like, the kind you’d set for a dog, and I could just, like, follow them? And we’d just hang out, but it’d be - not like this, really., because I’d be… yeah.”

The words pouring from Dave in a rush come to an abrupt halt, and for a moment, it sounds like he’s trying to catch both his breath and his train of thought. Karkat waits through an entire commercial for some insurance company before determining that Dave is actually done. “Okay,” Karkat says, and he’s definitely not feeling anything whatsoever about Dave being on his knees like that, or Dave following rules that Karkat’s set. Nope. He’s not at all worried about the proximity of Dave’s head to his bulge right now, nothing like that at all. “That sounds good to me.”

“Good or tolerable?”

Karkat shifts, but only because his leg is starting to fall asleep. Really. Absolutely nothing going on in the below-the-waist department. “Good,” he repeats. “What kind of rules were you thinking?”

Dave rolls onto his back again, but this time, when he makes eye contact with Karkat through his shades, he doesn’t immediately turn away. Instead, he watches Karkat steadily, face red but still stoic save for the smallest possible smirk. “I knew you’d like that part the most,” he says, the smirk widening to a grin.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” Karkat mutters. He lets the hand that was on Dave’s shoulder keep its new place on Dave’s chest, not pressing, not holding, just resting, and thinks about doing this with a quiet Dave. “I don’t know what actual barkbeasts were expected to do, so…”

“Right, yeah,” Dave says. His grin slides back into his usual poker face, but his cheeks grow brighter and brighter as he keeps talking. “I mean, there’s like, obvious stuff like not being loud and not jumping and stuff, or, um, not being allowed up on the furniture? That one’s - I could just, be, you know, by your feet. Just.., hanging out.”

“Okay,” Karkat says. Goddamn, he’s really starting to sound like a scratched vibration disk, but it’s hard to concentrate on that one too much when he’s busy revising his mental image. Okay, so, this, them hanging out, but Dave on the ground, his head against Karkat’s knee and Karkat’s hand in his hair, quiet and letting Karkat decide where he gets to be, and yeah, okay, okay, maybe it’s not just his heart that’s interested in the proceedings at the moment. 

He knows that there are probably a million and one reasons why this appeals to Dave and just as many why this appeals to Karkat, but they’ve never been the types to think about that stuff too hard. “And it’s - sort of a sex thing, you said.”

Dave nods. He seems to be relaxing now that Karkat isn’t flipping out and now that everything is out in the air between them. “Yeah, it’s… I don’t think it’s like, a, I’m on the ground sucking your bulge the entire time or whatever, but if you think that listening to you and shit isn’t going to make me horny as fuck, we’re headed straight for the thinkpan repair shop.”

Karkat can’t help the way he shivers a little at that, or the way he flushes when Dave clearly notices. “We should probably talk about specifics a little more beforehand,” he says, “but… you want to try it?”

Dave’s throat both visibly and audibly works. The TV switches back to the stupid reality show. “Yeah, that’d be cool,” Dave says, and when he sits up and leans in towards Karkat, it goes without saying that they postpone the rest of the conversation for the next day. 

*

“And if it’s not, like, it, just say so and we can stop, okay?” Dave says. “Free shipping on returns and a free human boyfriend thrown right back at ya as long as you call now, must be eighteen or older to order, you know the drill.”

Karkat ~~patiently~~ waits out the surprisingly short ramble before speaking. “I know, Dave. And if you want to stop for any reason, the same goes for you.”

Dave nods once, quickly. “Right. Okay. So… here goes?”

“Unless there’s some sort of speech I’m supposed to recite, I don’t see any reason to wait,” Karkat says, and he’s … okay, he’ll admit it. He’s excited for this. Nervous, and more than a little anxious that either he or Dave will hate it and then this will just be a weird, awkward memory permanently staining the collective Davekat psyche, but also excited. He’s done research, likely more than he needed to, but he wasn’t expecting to be as drawn into it as he was. There was, of course, plenty of stuff that he deemed horrible human bullshit - the masks, unsettling in their anonymity, the straight up furries, the list goes on - but there was also a lot of stuff that Karkat really, really liked. Like the obedience and the warm praise that always readily followed it, or the loping posture of someone comfortable on their hands and knees, or the close, steady tether of a collar and leash. It all has his bloodpusher pounding as he looks at Dave, sitting on the couch next to him, and slowly reaches up to grab Dave’s shades. “You still want these off?”

There’s a pause, but Dave nods. “Yeah,” he says, and even though his voice has inexplicably dropped in volume, it sounds way too loud in the quiet of the hive. Karkat is suddenly very aware of the sound of his breath, quick and heavier than usual, and the sound of his sweatpants brushing against the couch as he leans to the side to place Dave’s shades on the coffee table. “Um, how would you feel about - I might wanna take my jeans off? Just. Yeah.”

Karkat’s chest does something funny that he refuses to explore too much when he nods. “This is your human hoofbeast wrangler showcase, whatever you want.”

Dave snorts. “Not really, but okay.” He stands from the couch and awkwardly wriggles out of his black jeans, dropping them on the floor before Karkat gives him a capital-l Look and he sheepishly lays them over the back of the couch. “So, um, I don’t really know how we’re supposed to start this? Like, do we do a countdown and then boom, _Homeward Bound_ time or whatever, or-”

“How about I go in the meal block and fuck around, and you just, uh, come in when you’re ready,” Karkat suggests. He reaches out to grab Dave’s hand without really thinking about it, and he squeezes it once before letting go and standing up. “Okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Dave says. “See you in a minute then.”

Karkat gives him what he hopes is a reassuring look but probably just looks like a grimace as he turns and leaves, and he definitely doesn’t check out how nice Dave’s ass looks in his plain gray boxers as he goes. The hive is still painfully quiet, so much so that Karkat can hear that Dave is frozen in place in the other block, so he switches on the radio. It’s a poor imitation of the classic Alternian show _Die-lilah!_ , but it’s better than nothing.

Okay. Okay. Karkat’s got this. Obviously. He leans back against the counter and decidedly stares at the ceiling instead of the half-open door leading back into the living block. He’s excited, he thinks, somewhere in the weird tangle of feelings in his gut, and he could tell by the look in Dave’s eyes that he is too. They’ll figure it out. It’s cool, it’s them, and really - it’s Dave. He could come into the kitchen and say that he’s changed his mind, or he could come into the kitchen with fake fur glued to his skin, and Karkat would be ridiculously in love with him either way.

So Karkat continues to not look at the door or try and listen beyond the soothing voice of the radio host as he fixes himself a glass of water and then just… waits.

It’s only another couple of minutes before the half-open door starts to swing open, and Karkat looks over to see Dave on his hands and knees, pushing the door open with his head. 

“Hey,” Karkat says, just like he always would, before realizing that oh, yeah, Dave probably isn’t going to answer, because dogs don’t fucking talk, idiot. He pitches his voice up a bit, like he’s seen people do in the many, many dog and puppy play videos he’s watched over the past week or so, and says, “Hey, buddy.”

Dave, predictably, doesn’t answer. His mouth twists for a moment, like he was going to say something before he remembered, and Karkat is abruptly terrified that he’s fucked up before Dave crawls closer to him and bumps Karkat’s hand with his head. His cheeks are bright red and eye contact seems to be a thing of the past, but he looks - well, for lack of a better word, he looks really cute. 

Karkat lets himself smile a little, and he ruffles Dave’s hair with his hand. “Hey,” he says again. “So, I don’t really know what barkbeasts normally do to ‘hang out,’ but how does a movie sound?”

Again, Dave doesn’t answer, but he presses his head into Karkat’s touch, and there’s a small, genuine smile creeping up at the corners of his mouth. The jumble of feelings in Karkat’s gut feel like they’ve suddenly been unlocked, or like they’ve all collapsed into a warm pile of just - well, he doesn’t want to say love, because as much as he likes cheesy media he does try to maintain some self-respect, okay, but there’s something like fondness bubbling up inside of him as Dave follows him back into the living block. 

Karkat drops into his usual spot on the couch, already reaching for the remote, and it takes him a moment to realize that he hasn’t felt Dave plop down next to him. He looks down from the screen to find Dave sitting on his knees, his ass resting on his heels and his hands loosely brushing the carpet next to him.

Dave looks up at Karkat, then at the empty couch cushion, then back at Karkat. Even without his shades, his face is carefully blank, like he’s just waiting for Karkat to decide how this is going to pan out. Karkat is about to tell him to come on up before he remembers that first conversation, when they’d talked about rules and a million other things that made Karkat’s bloodpusher pound, and he’s very proud of himself for how stern his voice is when he says, “No, you can stay on the floor.”

Dave’s expression doesn’t change, but his cheeks flush an even brighter red. He drops his gaze and then - surprisingly gracefully, to the point where Karkat makes a mental note to ask if he’s been _practicing_ \- lowers himself all the way down to the floor, resting his head on Karkat’s bare foot like it’s a pillow. 

It’s weird, for a moment, but then Karkat carefully pets Dave’s hair with his other foot, and Dave just makes this little contented sigh and nuzzles closer, and Karkat is pretty sure that that’s the moment when he knows that this is going to become a regular thing. 

They watch _Mamma Mia_ for what’s probably around the fortieth time, and the afternoon sinks into night as Karkat sinks into the couch and the feeling of Dave resting at his feet, quiet and still beyond the occasional stretch or turn. As the movie winds to an end, though, Dave starts to get more and more fidgety, and when the credits start to play, Karkat is taken by surprise by the feeling of Dave licking his foot.

He leans forward and looks down at his boyfriend, who’s looking back up at him with a shit-eating grin. For a moment, Karkat freezes - he genuinely can’t tell if Dave is ending this “scene” or not, so he settles for what he hopes is a neutral answer of, “Do you want something?”

Dave licks Karkat’s foot again, which definitely doesn’t make anything in Karkat’s gut grow hot, but doesn’t say anything back. Okay, so this is still part of this whole thing, which, Karkat’s brain ~~un~~ helpfully reminds him, is kind of a sex thing. 

Karkat braces his elbows on his knees and stares down at Dave, who’s now just watching him carefully. There’s still something weird about how quiet he’s being, but Karkat won’t deny that there’s something nice about it too. “Do you want something?” he repeats. 

Dave’s face goes unreadable for a moment as he sits up - again, so gracefully that he must have been practicing moving around on all fours - on his knees and pushes his head into Karkat’s knee, gently nudging Karkat’s thighs apart. When he looks up again, his face looks cautious, like, _Is this okay?_

Karkat inhales, exhales, and inhales once again for good measure. “Yeah, if you want to - I’m not going to file a fucking complaint.”

Dave snorts softly, a smile turning his mouth up at the corners, and Karkat thinks his soul exits both his body and Earth C when Dave leans up and starts tugging at Karkat’s sweatpants with his teeth, leaving his hands down by his sides. He doesn’t exactly get far, since Karkat’s ass is holding them pretty firmly in place, but it’s the thought that counts, or however the human saying goes.

“Here, let me -” Karkat says, standing up just enough to push both his sweatpants and boxers down to his knees. Dave lifts a hand to push them the rest of the way down to pool around Karkat’s ankles, but he doesn’t grab them or anything, just pushes against them with his fingers curled against his hand - _like a paw_ , Karkat realizes, and he genuinely can’t tell whether he finds that cute or hot.

The latter seems to be a bit more likely, given the way that his bulge is already starting to poke out of his sheath and his nook is already getting wet, and fuck, fuck, that’s Dave’s mouth on his thigh. “Dave,” Karkat says, more breathlessly than he prefers to sound, and he reaches out to tangle a hand in Dave’s hair without thinking about it. He doesn’t pull, doesn’t tug, just holds Dave close and tries not to think about too hard about how he could do the same thing with a collar and leash, if Dave wanted. 

The way Dave doesn’t answer feels… less weird, this time, although whether that’s because Karkat’s getting used to it or because his mouth is clearly preoccupied with biting and licking at Karkat’s thigh is anyone’s guess. “Dave,” Karkat repeats, “Dave, _fuck._ ” 

His bulge slides all the way out of his sheath, bright red and wiggling around in search of whatever touch it can get, and Karkat’s hips twitch up. Dave looks up at Karkat, then at Karkat’s bulge, back at Karkat, and then slowly lowers his mouth back to Karkat’s thigh - closer, this time, but nowhere near close enough. Karkat’s bulge brushes Dave’s cheek, leaving a wet, pink trail of pre-genmat, but Dave doesn’t react.

Karkat groans. The sound starts exasperated but ends breathy and desperate as Dave moves closer but still not close enough. “Dave, please, come the fuck on.”

Dave’s huffed breath as he laughs brushes across Karkat’s bulge, and Karkat gasps. And then he gasps again, because, fuck, Dave’s mouth is on his bulge and his bulge is twisting and pushing forward and Dave’s hands are loosely brushing the floor and Karkat gets the sense that Dave would let him do anything, right now. It’s a dangerous power, and it stirs something inside of Karkat that he knows they’re going to have to talk about later, something that makes him want to call the garden where Rose and Kanaya were married and see if they have any openings anytime soon, and god, fuck, he really can’t think about stuff like this with Dave’s mouth on his bulge. 

“Fuck, Dave, fuck, you’re so good,” Karkat gasps out. His grip in Dave’s hair tightens, just a bit, and his free hand scrabbles at the couch cushion. “Come up here, let me-”

But Dave - doesn’t. He pauses for a moment, sliding his mouth off of Karkat’s bulge with a cliche wet _pop_ and an even more cliche line of spit hanging from his lip, and looks carefully up at Karkat as he moves to the side a bit and kneels back down, this time with his legs straddling Karkat’s foot, and oh god, Karkat swears he can feel how wet Dave is through his boxers. Slowly, like he’s asking for permission, Dave braces his hands flat on the floor and thrusts down onto Karkat’s foot.

Karkat lets the hand he has tangled in Dave’s hair slide down to cup Dave’s cheek, and he says, “You want to get off like that?” 

Dave is blushing brighter than Karkat think he’s ever seen him, but he nods. 

“Do you want me to touch you, Dave?”

Dave’s blush, impossibly, gets brighter. He drops his eyes down to the floor and mumbles, “It’s - like, dogs don’t - they just. Um. Yeah. And if you could - if you want, instead of Dave, right now, uh - dogs - call them boy, sometimes. Like, good boy, or something. Uh. I’m gonna - not talk. Again.”

Karkat is almost surprised to hear Dave’s voice - it’s quiet, which isn’t unusual, but it has an edge of disuse that really shouldn’t be making Karkat’s thinkpan do _things_ \- but he recovers quickly. “Okay,” he says, “whatever you want to do, remember? This is your human hoofbeast wrangler showcase.”

Dave gives him a little smile, embarrassed and grateful, and he leans forward and licks at Karkat’s bulge without saying another word. 

Karkat’s breath hitches and comes out as a moan as Dave sinks all the way onto his bulge, and he lets his hand slide back up to grab Dave’s hair again as he feels Dave start to grind against his foot. “Fuck, fuck, you’re doing so good,” he says, “you’re such a good boy.”

Dave whimpers when he says the last part, and the vibration that the sound sends both through Karkat’s bulge and his entire nervous system has Karkat coming with a shout. It’s more than Dave can quite swallow, no matter how many times he’s tried, and he ends up with a bit of genmat dripping from both sides of his mouth when he pulls off. Karkat wants nothing more than to grab him and pull him up on the couch and kiss him to death, but he tells himself to wait. 

He keeps his hand in Dave’s hair - again, not pulling or tugging but just holding him steady - and murmurs, “C’mon, you’re so good for me, that’s a good boy, you’re such a good boy, there you go,” over and over again in time with Dave’s whines as Dave moves from grinding to, well, full-blown humping, his mouth falling open and his whole body shaking as he comes. 

Dave slumps against Karkat, his head against Karkat’s knee, and for a long moment, they both just breathe. 

Finally, Dave breaks the silence. “Just so you know, that’s, uh, not how actual animals usually act,” he says. “The - the last bit, I mean.”

Karkat laughs, and when Dave stands and climbs onto the couch, he lifts his arm up just enough for Dave to tuck himself under it. “I figured.”

Dave turns to press a kiss to Karkat’s cheek before dropping his head onto Karkat’s shoulder. “You’re just irresistible, man,” he says, then, quieter, “Thank you.” He yawns, causing Karkat to do the same, and slides his arm to wrap around Karkat’s back. His movements aren’t sharp like they usually are, they’re soft and almost clumsy in the way that they normally only are when he wakes up way too early in the morning, but he seems happy in the most relaxed way that Karkat thinks he might ever have seen him.

“You really liked that, huh?” Karkat says.

“Was it that obvious?” Dave jokes. There’s a pause before he adds, “... What about you?”

“Yeah,” Karkat says, more genuinely than he meant to. “Yeah.”

*

“And so,” Dave concludes, with a grand wave of his arm that draws a raised eyebrow from more than a few of the mall-goers around them, “that’s why there is definitely in-universe fan hentai of Lightning McQueen, basically.” 

Karkat catches Dave’s hand in his own as it falls back to his side. The mall is bustling with humans, trolls, carapacians, and consorts, and it’s nice to have him close. “I really… did not need to know any of that.”

Dave smiles, lacing his fingers through Karkat’s without a moment of hesitation. “But knowing it’s improved your life considerably, hasn’t it?”

“Something like that,” Karkat says. He laughs a little when Dave bumps his shoulder into him and is about to suggest that they stop at the food court for some lunch when Dave’s pace stutters. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Dave says, but the answer comes too quickly. Karkat makes his best attempt to follow Dave’s gaze across the concourse and isn’t surprised, not really, when his gaze lands on a neon sign reading _Pets and Beyond_. 

“Do you wanna go in there?” Karkat asks. 

Dave stops walking. “Where?”

Karkat points with his free hand, even though he knows that Dave knows that he knows that Dave is pretending not to know. “The pet store,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be a thing, we can just look around or whatever, but…”

“Yeah, no, that sounds chill,” Dave says. His hand is hot in Karkat’s. “Let’s go.”

They make their way over to and inside the store without further conversation - Karkat is trying to get a read on whatever the hell is going through Dave’s head right now, and Dave seems both nervous and exited all at once. They’ve only done… whatever the hell they’re calling this shit once since the first time, and it went mostly the same, which is to say, really fucking well. It still feels awkward, and they haven’t really talked about it beyond the cursory assurances that they’re still on the same page, but Dave seems happy and Karkat knows that he’s happy too.

Still, though, they wouldn’t be themselves if they ever got right to the point of anything, so Karkat steps over towards the actual animals first. “Wait, people keep cheese critters as pets?”

“Yeah? Did y’all not - well, yeah, you didn’t have pets, I guess that makes sense,” Dave says. He crouches down so that he’s eye level with the tiny mice running around in the case and wiggles a finger at them. “Were your mice, like, venomous or some shit?”

Karkat snorts. He crouches down too, even though he has less distance to cover, and peers in at the mice. They stare curiously back at him and Dave, and Karkat’s not sure if their wide eyes or Dave’s entranced face is cuter. “No, they weren’t venomous or poisonous or anything, just giant fucking nuisances. They look not horrible like this, though.”

“Shut up, you’re in love with these little guys already and we both know it,” Dave says.

Karkat straightens up with a performative huff. “Yeah, well, maybe I have a thing for rats.”

“Hey!” Dave says, mock-offended. “Fair, but - hey. Do you wanna go see the snakes?”

“Sure,” Karkat says, and he and Dave walk over to the next row of glass cases. Dave leans in to peer at a curled-up ball python, but when Karkat leans down to join him, he sees that Dave is actually glancing over across the store, towards the pet supplies. Again - not surprising. 

But Karkat knows that Dave will probably be embarrassed if he brings it up directly, so carefully, he steps over to a giant bin of stuffed animals between the two sections. “What the fuck is this?” he asks, lifting up an abomination of what he thinks is a nut creature. 

Dave looks over and laughs. “It’s a dog toy, dude. They like to chew and shit, and better this poor fucker get torn apart then your shoes.”

Karkat looks down at the, frankly, offensive to nut creatures caricature in his hand, “And they look horrible because...?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Dave says. He steps over next to Karkat and takes the stuffed animal into his hand, squeezing it and snorting when the sudden squeak makes Karkat jump. 

“What the fuck was that?” Karkat demands.

“It has, like, a little squeaker thing in it to simulate the noise of dying prey or something,” Dave explains. “You know, that’s kinda fucked up, actually.”

Karkat doesn’t say anything, just looks over at Dave. He’s waiting for Dave to elaborate, as he almost always does, but his boyfriend seems lost in thought. Both of his hands have found their way around the toy, his grip looking a little more tense than holding something random in a store usually warrants. 

“Yeah,” Karkat says finally. “Uh, do you want one?”

Dave’s entire body tenses up, but he doesn’t let go of the toy. “What?”

“You know,” Karkat says, gesturing towards the bin of stuffed animals like that helps clear anything up at all. “Do you want to get one. For when… you know.”

“Damn, Karkat, you’re really stepping into the sugar daddy you were always meant to be. Glucose male parental unit? Something like that? Point is, that does officially make me the twink in the relationship, which, like, that’s definitely not news or anything, but it’s nice to have it down on paper, you know? Although if you want hot ass pics, you’re going to have to step up your game beyond, uh, this.” Dave grabs a - bear, possibly? - from the bin and holds it up for Karkat to see. “Look, it’s you.”

“I don’t even know where to start with that one,” Karkat admits. “Glucose male parental unit?”

“Yeah, sugar daddy in Alternian.”

Karkat pinches the bridge of his nose and gives his best exasperated sigh, “It’s - well, it’s not that, but okay. Okay. Why the fuck is that me?”

“Bear,” Dave says. He waggles it in Karkat’s face again, his smile pulled into the half-smirk he likes to have when he’s fucking with Karkat, but his cheeks are a telltale red and he’s holding the bear in two hands.

“Right, because that explains so much,” Karkat grouses. 

Dave rolls his eyes. Karkat can’t see him do it, of course, but he knows. “I’m the twink, you’re the bear, trust me, you’ve got the body for it. So this is you, although I really don’t want to know what the hell me picking this one says about our relationship.”

“Probably something about a fear of abandonment,” Karkat says, faux-seriously.

Dave swats him with the floppy legs of the bear. “Dude, I warned you to stop talking to Rose so much. Her psychology is 60% Wikipedia bullshit.”

Karkat rolls his eyes. Dave can see him do it, of course, but they both know that it’s fond. “Yeah, well, the leftover 40% holds up for me.” He pauses, then adds, “If you don’t want to - I know you’re still figuring out what exactly you want out of this, and if it’s weird, I just thought you might-”

“Nah, I like this little guy,” Dave says, and well, that’s all that really needs to be said. He holds the bear close to his chest as they bridge the literal gap to the pet supply section of the store and the metaphorical gap to acknowledging that they’re here for Dave. 

The first aisle they find themselves in is full of dog food and treats, and Karkat glances at Dave with one raised eyebrow. They haven’t really done a scene long enough for Dave to have needed to eat during it, but Karkat’s not sure what the fuck Dave’s going to want to do if and when they get to that point.

Dave wrinkles his nose. “Nah, I tried dog food once when I was a kid - long story, don’t ask - and I’m good.”

“Thank fuck,” Karkat says. “Not that - if you really wanted to, that’s fine, it just smells like shit.”

“Oh, god, yeah, can you imagine kissing me with dog food breath?”

“ _Gross_.” The exaggerated gagging sound that Karkat makes is only half-fake, but he recovers quickly enough to add, “Not that it’d be wildly different from whatever the hell is usually happening in there or anything.”

“You literally brush your teeth with something called grubpaste, dude.”

Karkat scowls. “It’s fucking mint grubpaste, idiot, it tastes the exact same as your stupid human toothpaste.”

“Doesn’t smell like it,” Dave mutters, and he easily ducks away from the light-hearted swat Karkat swings at him. “Hey, what if we made, like, little bone-shaped cookies or something, kinda like dog treats? Just. Could be fun.”

“I’m concerned about the proximity of that shape to - other things,” Karkat says, “but sure.”

“Oh, _fuck_ yeah, boner cookies, here we come.” Dave grins and heads into the next aisle before Karkat can groan. He’s definitely going to make boner cookies, isn’t he.

Karkat rolls his eyes at his - adorable, yes, and amazing - stupid boyfriend and follows him into the next aisle. He’s expecting Dave to already be detailing his plans for making the cookies as hyper-realistic as possible, but instead Dave is… quiet. Even his posture, still and tense, seems quiet as opposed to his usual fidgeting. Karkat follows his gaze to the display of collars and leashes, has a narratively relevant flashback or two, and then glances at the human woman looking at cat collars just a couple of feet away.

He clears his throat and points at a bright red, faux-leather leash. “I think that one would go well with, uh, his fur,” he says, because he can already see it against Dave’s skin, complimenting his eyes and blush and okay, okay, definitely stopping that train of though before it goes veering wildly off of the tracks.

Speaking of blush - there it is on Dave’s cheeks as he steps forward and runs the leash through his fingers. He turns slightly towards the woman at the other end of the aisle, clears his throat, and says, “Yeah, I think - yeah. We gotta pick out a collar too, though, gotta attach that shit to something, can’t just have it all fuckin’ freelancing like all your college friends that you just know are gonna be calling you for a loan in a month, and uh, yeah.” Dave cuts himself off. His hand is still loosely holding the leash, and he’s turned towards Karkat now, and Karkat kind of wants to kiss him in a way that he really shouldn’t in the middle of a mall pet store.

“Okay, whatever the fuck that was aside,” Karkat starts, then stops, because he doesn’t know how the fuck to say what he wants to say. “That. Yeah?”

“I’ve seen some, like - there’s sites for stuff like… this. That. Collars and shit.”

And with Dave’s face like that, who could blame Karkat, really, for the way he reaches up and places his hand, as lightly as he can, on the side of Dave’s neck. He can feel the rapid thumping of Dave’s pulse. “You’d want that?”

Dave swallows; Karkat can feel the motion under his thumb and he shivers. “Yeah, that’d be cool,” Dave says. 

Karkat laughs a little and drops his hand. “Cool,” he repeats. “You want to, uh, get that, then? And we can look at those sites when we get home.”

“Hell yeah,” Dave says. Where he was stiff before, he’s now loose and excited, a little shaky like he’s nervous but smiling more than he ever does in public, and when he holds up the disproportionate paw of his bear, Karkat gives it an obliging high five.

*

Due to customization wait times, customs, and a million other things that make Karkat, if you’ll forgive the wordplay, want to _cuss_ even more than usual, the collar takes a month to arrive. Dave and Karkat play around in little scenes in the interim - the boner cookies are made and given as treats and eaten more by Karkat than Dave in the end, Dave tries being naked during a scene but hates it and steals one of Karkat’s sweaters five minutes in, the bear becomes known as Jeffrey and becomes a fixture of playtime - and they work through the awkwardness and the times when it’s not sexual and the times when it is and the times when it works and the times when it doesn’t quite slot into place.

By the time the, as promised, discreet package arrives on their doorstep, both Karkat and Dave are starting to feel almost like experts of whatever the fuck is that they’re doing. All of that disappears instantly when Dave lifts the soft brown collar from the box. The round tag on the front reads Dave on one side and Return To Karkat on the other, and it jingles quietly as Dave turns the collar over in his hands.

“Holy shit, Karkat,” he says. He looks up at Karkat - his shades not yet on his face since it’s still early - and his smile is wide and nervous and open. “I was gonna joke or some shit, I had this great thing about businessmen all ready to go for when this got here, but just… holy shit?”

“Holy shit,” Karkat agrees. He half-means for it to come out as mocking, but it just sounds as genuine as Dave does. There’s something about his name being on it like that, something about the solid weight it clearly has in Dave’s hands, something about the glint of the D-ring and the red leash still hanging unused in the laundry room. “Do you want to-”

“Fuck, I told John we’d get lunch today,” Dave says. “Shit. Fuck. Would it be unethical to cancel on him just so I can stay home and, like, test run this thing?”

Karkat snorts. His bloodpusher is pounding, and its rate definitely informs the almost-hysterical sound of his laugh. Fuck. A _collar._ “I mean, I wouldn’t stop you,” he says. “It’s Egbert. He can deal.”

Dave pauses for a moment, like he might actually be considering it, before sighing and placing the collar gently back into its box. “Nah, that’d be a dick move. Tempting, but a dick move. We can just - tonight, yeah?”

“Tonight,” Karkat agrees. He looks up at Dave, then back at the collar, then back at Dave. “Would you maybe-” he starts, at the exact same moment that Dave says, “Wait, what if-”

They both laugh a little, then Karkat says, “Would you, uh, maybe want to wear it?”

Dave laughs outright. “Dude, that’s exactly what I was about to say,” he says. “I’d bet you literally a million and one bucks that John won’t even notice.”

“Yeah, like I’d take a bet we both know I’d lose,” Karkat says. “I think his willful obliviousness is only topped by Jake’s.”

“Yeah, and then just barely,” Dave says. “Okay. Well. Fuck, okay. We should probably take the tag off, just in case…? But. Yeah.”

“Yeah, true,” Karkat agrees. He reaches out and unclips the tag with hands that definitely aren’t shaking, then picks the collar up at the edges. He’s about to ask Dave if he wants him to put it on when Dave leans forward, tilting his head down just enough that it’s not a question at all. Fuck. Karkat would really love to know how he never knew how into this shit he would be before now. But he can think about that later, right now he’s slowly wrapping the leather around Dave’s neck. His fingers brush the sensitive skin at the back of Dave’s neck when he starts to fumble with the clasp, and Dave shivers.

Karkat _clicks_ the collar into place and lifts his hands slightly, letting them hover just over Dave’s neck. “Okay?” he asks. “Not too tight?”

Dave’s voice is hoarse when he says, “Perfect.” He lifts his head up so that he can see Karkat again, and Karkat only has a moment to try to decipher whatever emotion is on Dave’s face before he’s being pulled into a kiss.

Almost instinctively, one of Karkat’s hands threads into Dave’s hair, while the other moves between them to hook a finger in the D-ring of the collar and keep Dave close. Dave gasps into Karkat’s mouth, the hands he has placed on either side of Karkat’s face suddenly squeezing and pulling him as close as he can possibly get. 

Karkat scrapes his teeth lightly along Dave’s bottom lip, then pulls away just enough to whisper, “Fuck, Dave.”

Dave sounds out of breath, but he manages a, “Yeah,” and then, a moment later, “Shit, I’m gonna be late.”

Karkat lets him sit back, keeping his finger hooked in the collar and trying not to think too hard about the fact that sitting back was something that Karkat had to _let_ him do. “Tell Egbert I’m going to kick his stupid ass,” Karkat says. “Don’t tell him why, but that fucker better know what’s coming to him.”

Dave laughs. His hand comes up to touch the collar, like he can’t believe it’s actually there, and he says, “I will.” He leans in and kisses Karkat on the cheek, and this time, when he moves away and stands, Karkat lets him go.

“Pizza for dinner?”

“Yeah, but don’t you dare get anchovies on the whole thing again.”

“That was the pizza place, not me,” Karkat protests. 

Dave raises an eyebrow. “Sure.” He grabs his shades from the table and slides them on. The tag on the collar jingles when he moves. “See you later, then.”

“Yeah,” Karkat says. He knows he’s blatantly staring at the collar, but he doesn’t think Dave’s going to call him out on it. It’s just… there, solid and present and actually, he’ll be pretty surprised if John doesn’t notice it. “And we’ll…”

“Yeah,” Dave says. For a moment, he looks like he’s about to say something else, but then he just grins and turns to head out of the door. “Love you!” he calls.

“Love you too, dingus,” Karkat replies, and then the front door closes and well, fuck. He has god knows how long to kill, and he can’t get the sight or sound or feel of the collar out of his head. Okay. 

Karkat gets up from the kitchen table and heads into the living block, giving it a quick glance to make sure that it’s not too messy. He tries to keep the floor cleaner than usual for days like these, so Dave doesn’t run the risk of hurting his knee on something, but there’s not really anything to pick up. Their hive certainly isn’t the neatest place in the world, but it’s not as awful as some people (Dirk and Kanaya, mostly) like to imply. 

He flops onto the couch with a sigh and picks up a book he’s been trying to read for about a week now, a B-list romantic drama Dave got him as a joke but has proven mostly readable. He reads for a couple of hours, until the warm glow of sunset starts to peek in from outside, and then he puts the book down and orders pizza - anchovies only on one side, thank you very fucking much.

He tries to pick up the book again, but he knows that Dave is going to be home soon and focusing isn’t really happening, as it were. He ends up walking in circles around the hive, a habit he picked up as a kid and never quite dropped, until the door swings open and there’s Dave, stepping inside, hands in his pockets and collar still around his neck.

“Hey,” Karkat says. “How was it?”

“Good,” Dave says. He pulls Karkat into a hug, murmuring, “John didn’t fuckin’ notice,” in his ear.

Karkat laughs. “God, that idiot. The three of us really need to hang out again soon.”

“Hell yeah,” Dave agrees. There’s an awkward moment as they untangle their arms, like neither is entirely certain that they’re still on the same page, but the quiet is broken by a knock at the door. 

Dave gets it and the pizza, and they sit down and start eating with the uncertainty still hanging in the air. Finally, through a mouthful of pizza, Dave says, “You, uh, still want to… you know?”

Karkat makes an attempt to act like he’s looking at Dave’s eyes and not the glint of the light reflecting off of his tag. He fails. “If you want to,” he says. (It goes without saying that his attempt to sound casual also fails.)

“That’s not even a question,” Dave says. He pushes his shades up into his hair and gives Karkat a small smile, and Karkat thinks he might die on the spot out of sheer fucking fondness.

They chat for the rest of dinner about John and the restaurant where he and Dave had lunch and a million other things, but the weird quietness falls again as they both finish eating.

“So,” Karkat says, “uh, I was thinking - I can just clean up in here, and if you wanted, you could be - we could get the leash out.”

Dave is staring so intently at the spot just above Karkat’s head that Karkat wonders if he knows that his hand is on his collar. “And you’d hold the leash?”

Karkat nods. “I mean, I need both hands to do shit, but I could put it around my wrist or something.”

“Yeah, that’d be, um. Let’s do that,” Dave says. “Do you want me to get it, or ...?”

“Sure,” Karkat says. “It’s -”

“In the laundry room, yeah,” Dave finishes. He stands up from the table and heads into the other room, and Karkat swallows hard. God. He doesn’t know why this is getting to him so much, but _fuck_.

Dave comes back in only a moment later, jeans and t-shirt discarded in favor of plain black boxers, leash swinging from his hand. He holds it out to Karkat with an expression halfway between embarrassment and excitement but says nothing.

Karkat takes it carefully, almost reverently, and says, “Down, boy.”

Dave’s cheeks flush, but he sinks down onto his knees, resting his palms on his thighs and looking up at Karkat. Already, his movements look softer around the edges, almost clumsier, and Karkat can’t help but tousle his hair. “Good boy.”

Dave does a full-body wiggle and nudges Karkat’s knee with his head.

“Alright, alright, hold your fucking hoofbeasts,” Karkat says, He reaches down and clips the leash to the collar with a slightly less steady hand than he’d prefer, and then… that’s that. It takes less than a second, and nothing really changes, except for the fact that when Karkat looks down amd makes eye contact with Dave, he kind of feels like he just got hit with an electric shock. “Okay, uh, I’m just going to - yeah.”

He stands, sliding the loop at the end of the leash over his hand and around his wrist, and tries not to think about Dave’s presence too hard as he clears the table and tosses the leftover pizza into the hunger trunk. It’s… nearly fucking impossible. 

It’s not that Dave is loud or anything - he doesn’t say anything, and the sound of his hands and knees on the floor is soft and only noticeable when Karkat’s listening for it - or that he gets in the way - he’s careful not to step on or in the way of Karkat’s feet, and he only brushes his head along Karkat’s calf every now and then, like a reminder that he’s still there that Karkat really, really doesn’t need. The pressure on the leash is more than enough of a reminder, a constant little tug reminding Karkat that Dave is right there, so close, that he’s tethered to Karkat and not going anywhere.

It’s comforting in a way that Karkat is sure Rose would love to analyze, given the chance, but he’s content with the fact that it’s comforting at all.

Clean up is easy and done within ten minutes, and then Karkat slides the leash down into his hand and says, “Do you want to go play fetch?”

Dave looks up at him and nuzzles into his hand, which Karkat is pretty sure means yes, so he leads Dave into the living room and picks up Jeffrey. “Ready?” Karkat asks, and he lets Dave nose at the small bear for just a moment before he tosses it across the living room.

Reluctantly, Karkat drops the leash so that Dave can run after the toy - he still can’t get over how fast Dave can move like that, or how smooth he makes it look -, pick it up in his mouth, and drop it back at Karkat’s feet. “Good boy,” Karkat says. He pets from Dave’s hair all the way down to his back a couple of times, reveling in the way his hand stutters over the collar, then picks Jeffrey up and throws it again.

They play like that for a while, until Dave starts to slow down, and Karkat can’t stop watching the leash trail along the floor or the light catch on the tag or even the way that Dave’s shoulder blades move as he trots across the room. At risk of being cheesy, he really can’t believe how lucky he is to get to have this at all, or how lucky he is to get to have it with _Dave._

“You about ready to take a break?” Karkat asks, crouching down to meet Dave as he crawls across the floor, Jeffrey held securely between his teeth.

Dave stops a couple of feet away from Karkat, drops Jeffrey to the ground, and tenses up. Karkat realizes what’s going to happen a moment after Dave has launched himself toward him, and his attempt to brace himself comes too late. He and Dave go tumbling backwards onto the floor, Dave on top of Karkat, and Karkat quickly grabs his leash.

“Hey, what did I say about tackling?” Karkat says. He’s aiming for stern, but he doesn’t think he quite makes it, not with a laugh bubbling up in his throat and … something else stirring up below, now that Dave is pressed up against him.

Dave gives him a look that Karkat just _knows_ has something to do with glomping and how it’s very different from tackling, actually, and Karkat forces his face into a frown. “That was bad, Dave.”

Dave pouts. It should be cheesy, and to anyone else, it probably would be, but it makes Karkat feel a little bad. Just a little. “Okay,” he sighs, “it’s okay. I’d like to get up, though.”

Karkat tugs on the leash slightly to try and encourage Dave to slide off of him to the side, but Dave just whines. “What, is there something you want?”

Dave whines again, and this time, he grinds his hips down against Karkat’s. Not hard, nothing too bold, but enough that Karkat gets the message. “Yeah?” Karkat says.

Dave drops his face into the crook of Karkat’s neck and licks at the slightly sweaty skin there. Karkat bites back a sound that could only be classified as a whimper. “Yeah, yeah, alright,” Karkat says. “Hang on.”

Karkat takes a deep breath, then uses both his free hand and the leash to flip Dave over and hold him still as he straddles him. Dave’s breath catches; his tag jingles; Karkat exhales. “Do you want me to fuck you?”

Dave leans up and licks at his throat again, and Karkat takes that and the way that Dave tries to spread his legs as much as he can in the space between Karkat’s knees as a yes. “Okay, fuck,” he says. “I’m gonna -” He reaches for the waistline of Dave’s boxers, and Dave easily lifts his ass off of the floor so Karkat can tug them down to his ankles. 

“Shit, Dave,” he murmurs, letting the hand still holding the leash slip over the side of Dave’s thighs and slide down, down to where Dave is fucking _soaked._ He runs a finger right over Dave’s clit, and Dave keens, bucking up into him and scrabbling uselessly at the carpet with his “paws.”

Karkat leans down, close enough to Dave to feel each _puff_ of his breath, as he slips his index finger into him. The motion tugs on the leash just a bit, and Dave’s mouth falls open in a gasp that quickly turns into a groan as Karkat adds another finger - Dave is so fucking wet that there’s really not any prep to be done, and Dave tends to prefer as little touch as possible when they’re doing this. 

“You’re doing so good, such a good boy,” Karkat praises. He slowly starts to fuck Dave with his fingers, in and out in a steady rhythm, and Dave’s groans grow louder and higher with nearly every thrust in. Karkat adds a third finger.

 _”Fuck,”_ Dave moans, and Karkat reaches up with his free hand to gently cup his face.

“Shh,” Karkat murmurs. “You’re alright, boy, you’re alright. You think you’re ready?”

Dave nods like a bobblehead and turns his head to the side so that he can lick Karkat’s hand gently. “Kinda gross, but okay,” Karkat says, laughing a little, and Dave smiles up at him. 

Karkat resists the urge to kiss him - they agreed pretty early on that they wouldn’t, not during this - and instead focuses on getting his sweatpants and boxers off and away because fuck, his bulge is squirming and leaking pre-genmat and this is going to be over a little more quickly than he thinks anyone wants. 

He pulls his hand out of Dave’s cunt, the leash still around his wrist, and takes his hand off of Dave’s face to brace himself as he pushes in. “Oh, fuck, Dave,” he groans, “fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Dave whimpers, a high, unsteady sound, and his legs come up to wrap around Karkat and pull him closer, deeper. 

“Yeah, I’m getting there,” Karkat says. “Fuck. Okay. Yeah.” He starts to move, probably a little faster than he usually does but, hey, Dave clearly isn’t complaining. He doesn’t need to thrust all that much - the wiggling of his bulge does most of the work - but he knows that the back and forth does _something_ to Dave, so he keeps up a quick, hard pace. 

“Fuck, fuck, so good, such a good boy,” he’s saying, or at least something like that, and Dave is moaning in his ear and pulling him ever closer with his legs and Karkat slides the hand he’s holding the leash in back just far enough for it to tug at Dave’s collar, refusing to let either of them forget that it’s there for even a moment. 

Karkat’s thrusts get faster and faster, his bulge starting to thrash inside of Dave, and he drops down onto his elbows as he comes, genmat gushing inside of Dave and already starting to leak out. Thank fuck for easily cleaned carpets. 

Once he can form coherent thought again, Karkat says, “Do you, fuck, do you want me to touch you?”

Dave shakes his head, looking suddenly almost hesitant, and reaches a curled up hand to gently push at Karkat’s shoulder. Karkat looks at it for a moment before he gets it. “Oh, you want to flip over again?”

Dave licks at his throat, and Karkat slowly pulls out and rolls over, careful to help Dave climb back on top of him. When Dave spreads his legs to straddle Karkat, Karkat can see bright red genmat starting to drip from Dave, and his bulge twitches interestedly before sliding back into its sheath. Dave looks down at him for a moment, not moving, then pushes at Karkat’s shoulder again.

Karkat blinks. “Do you want me to flip over?”

Dave nods, that same kind of hesitance appearing on his face again, and Karkat tries to sound as reassuring as possible when he says, “Okay, sure.”

He rolls over onto his stomach, leash still in hand like an anchor, and only has to wait a moment for Dave to, well, for lack of a better word, mount him. Karkat chokes on something between an inhale and a moan. He’s seen stuff like this in the videos, but Dave’s never tried it before. Fuck.

Dave drapes himself over Karkat’s back, his elbows on the floor and his chest hot against Karkat’s shirt, breath quick and warm in Karkat’s ear, and waits. 

“Fuck, that’s good, that’s a, uh, good boy,” Karkat says. “It’s okay, boy.”

Dave leans back enough to grab the edge of Karkat’s shirt in his teeth and pulls it up enough to lick a stripe up Karkat’s back, right along his spine, and starts to hump Karkat’s ass. Karkat can feel the wet trail of his own genmat and Dave’s own slick rubbing against him, not even starting slowly but diving straight and desperately in, and Dave starts to make the little panting whines he makes when he’s close like this after only a minute or so.

“C’mon, there’s a good boy,” Karkat says, pushing back up to meet Dave and holding the leash taut. “C’mon, there you go, boy, good boy.”

Dave gasps, whimpers, and goes still for a moment before unceremoniously dropping all of his weight on Karkat’s back. He nudges his chin into the spot between Karkat’s shoulder and face and sighs contentedly.

“I love you dearly, Dave, but your ass is crushing me,” Karkat says, rolling onto his side and gently pushing Dave onto the floor, letting the leash fall from his grip and next to Dave. 

Dave doesn’t protest, just flops down and sighs again before nuzzling his face against Karkat’s neck. 

“Dave?” Karkat says carefully. Every other time that they’ve done this, sex has broken the scene, and while Karkat’s not complaining if it’s not, exactly, he wants to make sure that Dave’s okay. 

“Mm,” Dave hums, then licks Karkat’s neck. 

Karkat props himself up on one elbow and looks down at his boyfriend. Dave’s still naked and pretty much covered in genmat from his waist to his knees, but his eyes are half-closed and there’s a small smile on his face.  
Karkat reaches out and ruffles his hair, laughing softly when Dave leans up into the touch. “Well, I’m exhausted as shit, if I’m honest, so are you cool with just going to bed?”

Dave opens his eyes all the way, tilts his head a bit to the side, and grabs his leash in his teeth before turning back to Karkat. 

“Oh,” Karkat says, “yeah, here.” He takes both the leash and a moment to appreciate what Dave’s just given him - control, in so many words, all of his soft spots on a silver nutrition plateau. It’s not something they talk about, not really; they tend to treat vulnerable spots like conversational landmines to avoid, but times like this get everything that needs to be said across better than words probably could. So when Karkat says, “Thanks,” and Dave licks a long stripe up his cheek and makes him cringe a bit, they both know what they mean. 

Karkat stands on shaky legs and asks, “Do you want to shower first?”

Dave lifts himself onto all fours and shakes his head, then his whole body, like he’s wagging a tail.

“Okay, me neither,” Karkat says. “But you’re not going to sleep like that, you’ll fucking kill me in the morning if you do.”

Dave just looks up at him, the unhelpful, adorable, perfect bastard. 

Karkat sighs. “C’mon.”

He leads Dave into the kitchen, the leash secure around his wrist and still a thrill every time it tugs, where he wets a washcloth and crouches down in front of Dave. “Sit, boy.”

Dave sits back on his heels, and Karkat pets his hair, amazed as he always is when Dave just _listens_ to him. “This might be kinda cold,” he warns as he reaches down and starts wiping Dave’s thighs down with the washcloth. 

Again, it’s... weird, they’ve never had a post-coital time quite like this, but something about the quiet dark of the hive and the sleepy, sated feeling in Karkat’s gut twist into something that feels like something he’s been looking for for sweeps but has only just found. 

Dave sits quiet and still as Karkat cleans him up, only moving to rest his head on Karkat’s shoulder when Karkat finishes, scoots closer, and wraps his arms around Dave.

“Hey, buddy,” Karkat says gently. “I love you, you know.”

Dave makes a little snuffling noise into Karkat’s shoulder, and Karkat snorts. “Thanks,” he says, sitting back and ruffling Dave’s hair again. “Okay, ready to go to bed?”

Dave crawls back up onto all fours, takes a moment to stretch his legs out behind himself, and then looks expectantly up at Karkat. 

Karkat wraps the leash around his wrist again, just to be sure, just to have Dave that inch closer, and slowly leads Dave up the stairs and into their respite block. 

He pauses in front of the bed - Dave isn’t allowed on the furniture like this, but when Karkat looks down at him, he’s making an absolutely ridiculous begging face. Karkat rolls his eyes. “Get on up,” he says, just like Dave knew he would, and Dave immediately launches himself onto his usual side of the bed, just like Karkat knew he would regardless of what he said.

Karkat lets the leash go so that Dave doesn’t choke himself by jumping, but he picks up the end of it again once he’s pulled on some boxers and climbed into bed. Dave immediately snuggles up next to him, and Karkat wraps an arm around his shoulders and pets him idly. 

It’s comfortable in a way that silence rarely is for either of them, neither of them feeling the need to fill the quiet understanding with words to hide what they’re really feeling. Karkat closes his eyes and leans his head against Dave’s. It feels like the kind of moment where he should be thinking about the cosmic miracle of the two of them finding each other, or the smaller scale miracle of this weird little thing that they’ve stumbled into, but all he can really think about as he falls asleep is how goddamn lucky it is that he’s never gotten the hang of knocking.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! feedback and prompt suggestions are always welcome.


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